Plans to sell groundwater from beneath the Mojave Desert to Southern California suburbs are likely to pick up another approval Monday when Cadiz Inc.'s proposal goes before the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. But the company's highest hurdles lie ahead. The project faces mounting legal challenges, difficult negotiations with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California over use of the Colorado River Aqueduct, opposition from California's senior U.S. senator and the possibility that it may yet be forced to undergo an exhaustive review under federal environmental law. "I think the biggest obstacle Cadiz is going to have is sitting in Washington, D.C., named Dianne Feinstein," water district board member Brett Barbre said.

A Republican congressman who represents the northern Mojave Desert has asked the federal government to launch a full-fledged environmental review of Cadiz Inc.'s proposed groundwater pumping project. The request by U.S. Rep. Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) joins a similar one made last year by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), making a rare show of bipartisan unity on a publics lands issue. In a June letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell that was released Thursday by the National Parks Conservation Assn., Cook echoed opponent concerns about Cadiz's plans to pump groundwater from beneath its holdings in the eastern Mojave and sell the water to urban Southern California.

Apart from the apparent conflict of interest with Cadiz Inc. CEO Keith Brackpool being water policy advisor to Gov. Gray Davis, and Brackpool's previous "greywater" dealings, haven't we learned anything [Critics Raising Concerns About Cadiz Water Project," May19]? Just take everything written about the privatization of electricity in California and substitute the word "water." Cadiz seeks "a foothold in the boom market for water in California." It is counterintuitive to get water from a desert.

Plans to sell groundwater from beneath the Mojave Desert to Southern California suburbs are likely to pick up another approval Monday when Cadiz Inc.'s proposal goes before the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. But the company's highest hurdles lie ahead. The project faces mounting legal challenges, difficult negotiations with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California over use of the Colorado River Aqueduct, opposition from California's senior U.S. senator and the possibility that it may yet be forced to undergo an exhaustive review under federal environmental law. "I think the biggest obstacle Cadiz is going to have is sitting in Washington, D.C., named Dianne Feinstein," water district board member Brett Barbre said.

One of the West's most ambitious private water marketing proposals has taken a step forward with the environmental approval ofCadiz Inc.'s plans to sell massive amounts of Mojave Desert groundwater to Southern California. The board of the Santa Margarita Water District, which serves 155,000 customers in south Orange County, voted 5 to 0 Tuesday night to sign off on the project's environmental impact report under state law. The board also agreed to buy one-tenth of the project's proposed annual yield.

The Mojave Desert groundwater thatCadiz Inc.wants to sell to Southland suburbs contains hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen, in amounts that are hundreds of times greater than the state's public health goal for drinking water. The presence of the toxic heavy metal, which occurs naturally in the aquifer Cadiz proposes to tap, could force the company to undertake expensive treatment, driving up the cost of the project and ultimately the price of its water. The chromium contamination is one of several concerns raised by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which owns and operates the 242-mile-long Colorado River Aqueduct that Cadiz would use to transport its supplies to customers.

The Bazan state shipyard Tuesday locked out its 2,800 workers in Cadiz because of their protests against job cuts, trade union officials said. A company spokesman said workers had smashed windows, burned tires and disrupted work at Bazan's San Fernando shipyard in Cadiz. He said the shipyard will stay closed until further notice.

"High Chromium 6 Levels Found in Mojave Aquifer" (Nov. 14) adds to the list of problems associated with this ground water grab in the Mojave Desert. Cadiz Inc. wants to drain water from an aquifer that has sustained plants and animals in the Mojave Desert for millenniums. But Cadiz isn't the only landowner with acreage and access to this aquifer. The American people own much more: Mojave National Preserve and five Bureau of Land Management wildernesses. Monitoring and decision-making in the proposed plan are dominated by Cadiz and its customer, the Metropolitan Water District.

June 13, 1989 | ALEENE MacMINN, Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

Three performers who appeared in "Gone With the Wind" helped mark the 50th anniversary of the Academy Award-winning film at the annual Clark Gable celebration over the weekend in Gable's birthplace, Cadiz, Ohio. On hand were Cammie King Conlon, who played Scarlett and Rhett's child, Bonnie Blue; Patrick Curtis, who was Ashley and Melanie Wilkes' infant son, and Fred Crane (the former longtime classical music program host at KFAC in Los Angeles), who had the role of Brent Tarleton, one of Scarlett's suitors.

Re "MWD Delays Vote on Buying Water," Jan. 9: There are several important reasons why the Cadiz plan to drain water from the aquifers beneath the Mojave Desert should be rejected by the Metropolitan Water District. The water from these aquifers is precious to a variety of rare plants and animals; the water will be extremely expensive to treat safely; public lands outside the area of extraction (two national parks and five wilderness areas) will be adversely affected; and the draining of the aquifers could cause toxic dust storms.

One of the West's most ambitious private water marketing proposals has taken a step forward with the environmental approval ofCadiz Inc.'s plans to sell massive amounts of Mojave Desert groundwater to Southern California. The board of the Santa Margarita Water District, which serves 155,000 customers in south Orange County, voted 5 to 0 Tuesday night to sign off on the project's environmental impact report under state law. The board also agreed to buy one-tenth of the project's proposed annual yield.

The Mojave Desert groundwater thatCadiz Inc.wants to sell to Southland suburbs contains hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen, in amounts that are hundreds of times greater than the state's public health goal for drinking water. The presence of the toxic heavy metal, which occurs naturally in the aquifer Cadiz proposes to tap, could force the company to undertake expensive treatment, driving up the cost of the project and ultimately the price of its water. The chromium contamination is one of several concerns raised by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which owns and operates the 242-mile-long Colorado River Aqueduct that Cadiz would use to transport its supplies to customers.

CADIZ, Calif. - Three decades ago a group of businessmen pored over NASA satellite imagery as part of a worldwide hunt for large groundwater reserves they could tap to grow desert crops. They found the signs they were looking for here in the sun-blasted mountain ranges and creosote-freckled valleys of the Mojave Desert, 200 miles east of Los Angeles. The group, which founded Cadiz Inc., bought old railroad land, drilled wells and planted neat grids of citrus trees and grapevines, irrigating them with water that bubbled out of the desert depths at the rate of 2,000 gallons a minute.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed to the state Horse Racing Board a politically connected businessman who once employed the governor's chief of staff. The company run by Keith Brackpool, 52, of Los Angeles paid Schwarzenegger Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy $120,000 as a consultant in 2005. She advised the firm, Cadiz Inc., on a project to store water from an underground aquifer in the Mojave Desert for use during droughts. Schwarzenegger, who is negotiating with lawmakers on a water deal that could fund billions of dollars in new projects, endorsed Cadiz's proposal earlier this year, though he has not committed to making it part of an agreement to bolster the state's water supply.

People who say that nothing's harder to get rid of than a bad penny must never have met Keith Brackpool. The British-born promoter, who has spent the last dozen years pushing a scheme to pump water to Southern California from beneath 35,000 acres his Cadiz Inc. owns in the Mojave Desert, just won't go away.

Cadiz Inc. filed an administrative claim accusing the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California of violating terms of their joint venture last fall when it refused to proceed with a water storage project on Cadiz property. That project would have brought Cadiz as much as $1 billion in revenue.

Three Bulgarians have requested political asylum in the United States after jumping ship in this southern Spanish port, police said Sunday. They said the three, who were not identified, slipped away from the 30,073-ton bulk carrier Bulgaria when it docked in Cadiz on Friday. Police said they issued the Bulgarians provisional refugee cards while their asylum request was forwarded to U.S. authorities.

As a native Andalusian, I would like to clarify that Andalusia is not a province of Spain ("Israel Andalusian Orchestra Offers Impressive Blend," by Don Heckman, June 21). Andalusia is one of the largest regions of Spain, covering almost all the south of the country from Portugal to Murcia. It has eight provinces: Cordoba, Jaen, Granada, Malaga, Almeria, Sevilla, Cadiz and Huelva. CONCHITA S. RUESS Santa Barbara

Cash-strapped Cadiz Inc. said its primary lender demanded immediate repayment of $35 million in loans that came due at the end of January. The Santa Monica-based water development company had been trying to restructure its loans with ING Capital, but in a recent government filing, Cadiz said ING declared the company in default on Feb. 13. Cadiz, which also needs money for ongoing operations, said it is "in discussions with several parties to obtain this funding."

Cadiz Inc. said Thursday that its Sun World International agriculture subsidiary filed for bankruptcy protection, adding to the Santa Monica-based water company's list of troubles. Sun World, a fruit and vegetable grower, said it has liabilities of $158 million and assets of $148 million. According to a copy of its Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, the company has debt of $115 million in notes due in April 2004 and interest payments of $13 million a year.